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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Had a hard time trying to keep Jeff's fingers out of this peanut sauce!

If you are a die-hard griller when it starts getting this cold and dark so early at night, tonight's dinner would be great to cook outside - however we are not, so I used our Griddler to make this Chicken Saté with Peanut Sauce inside the warm and toasty house.

The chicken breasts are sliced and threaded on skewers to cook, but you could just leave them whole if you don't want to mess with that. The strips are marinaded in a mixture of brown sugar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, lime zest, crushed red pepper and a couple minced garlic cloves. We found that with just a quick 15 minute rest the chicken was well flavored from the marinade - if you decide to just keep them whole, I might think about letting them sit a bit longer.

The finger-licking sauce that is made next though, was the best part of the recipe we think. The sauce is made in a snap by combining brown sugar, soy sauce, fresh lime juice, creamy natural peanut butter, a dash of crushed red pepper for kick and a minced clove of garlic. Since we used the Griddler to cook the chicken, the strips were done in a speedy 4 or 5 minutes, but if you are using a grill it will probably take 8 to 10. The dish does have a bit of heat, yet it is not so much your mouth is on fire - somewhere between mild and medium with a coolness coming from the bright lime juice. Think about doubling this recipe as Jeff and I demolished this between us two pretty easily... so much for any leftovers tomorrow! I bet these would make for a fun appetizer-type dish to serve for guests - I've also got an idea swirling about doubling the sauce and then adding some pasta and veggies with the chicken to make a big, delicious and hearty bowl of food for dinner one night.